Manmohan Singh installs "MS office " with 78 Ministers in cabinet

The week long Manmohan Singh government today completed the expansion of his Ministry by adding another 59 Ministers to his previous council of 19 thereby taking the tally to 78 ministers in his cabinet.

The news finally came in at 9.30 pm on Thursday when all the portfolios were out and it was eventually clear as to which Minister got what portfolio. Initially it as felt that the whole affair was on expected lines but then came in a few surprises. The former commerce Minister Mr Kamal Nath was moved to surface transport while a new commerce minister in Anand Sharma came in. Veerappa Moily as the law minister was also a surprise for many.

The tough balancing act with due consideration to regions, caste, political experience, political weight, religion, aptitude and merit had to be all taken into account before the exhaustive process of allocating the ministries was finally done. The government was also expecting efficiency from the new incumbents and as the Prime Minister noted that "business as usual' would not do.

No MP from Goa or UP could find a place in the cabinet either as a cabinet minister or as a minister of state.There are currently two congress MPs from Goa in the parliament with Mr Francisco Sardinha elected to the Lok sabha from Mormugao Constituency while Mr Shantaram Naik represents Goa in the Rajhya sabha. Other notable exclusions from the cabinet include the former KRD minister Mr Arjun Singh, Mr HR Bhardwaj, Jat veteran Mr Sisram Ola and outgoing Ministers Saifuddin Soz and Ashwini Kumar.

With 33 ministers of cabinet rank, seven Ministers of State( MoS) with independent charge and 38 MoS, there is hardly any more space for any more candidates as the council of ministers cannot cross 81 and therefore only 3 more can be accommodated.

The 78 ministers has 29 first timers and nine ex- Chief Ministers. the Nationalist Congress party's (NCP) Agatha Sangma is the youngest ever Minister at 28. She is the junior minister to CP Joshi who will also hold the additional charge of Panchayati Raj

The following is the exhaustive list of the ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet, with their portfolios

No	Name	Age	Portfolio
	Manmohan Singh	76	Prime Minister
1	A K Antony	68	Defence
2	S M Krishna	77	External Affairs
3	Ghulam Nabi Azad	60	Health
4	Vayalar ravi	71	Overseas Indian Affairs
5	Murli Deora	72	Petroleum
6	Ambika Soni	65	Information and Broadcasting
7	Anand Sharma	56	Commerce & Industry
8	G K Vasan	44	Shipping
9	Vilasrao Dehsmukh	64	Heavy Industries
10	M S Gill	72	Youth Affairs and Sports
11	Pranab Mukherjee	74	Finance
12	Mukul Wasnik	50	Social Justice
13	Sharad Pawar	69	Agriculture
14	Dayanidhi Maran	42	Textiles
15	P Chidambaram	64	Home Affairs
16	A Raja	47	Communications and IT
17	Mamata Banerjee	54	Railways
18	Sushilkumar Shinde	68	Power
19	M Veerappa Moily	69	Law
20	Mallikarjun Kharge	67	Labour
21	S Jaipal Reddy	67	Urban Development
22	Kamal Nath	63	Surface Transport
23	Meira Kumar	64	Water Resources
24	Kapil Sibal	61	Human Resources
25	Pawan K Bansal	60	Parliamentary Affairs
26	Kumari Selja	47	Housing, Tourism
27	B K Handique	75	Mines, NE Development
28	C P Joshi	58	Rural Development, Panchati Raj
29	M K Azhagiri	58	Chemicals & Fertilizers
30	Virbhadra Singh	75	Steel
31	Farooq Abdullah	72	New and Renewable energy
32	Subodh Kant Sahay	58	Food Processing industries
33	Kantilal Bhuria	58	Tribal Affairs
	Ministers of state		Independent charge
34	Prithviraj Chavan	63	Science and Tech,PMO,Personnel
35	Jairam Ramesh	55	Environment & Forest
36	Praful Patel	52	Civil Aviation
37	Sriprakash Jaiswal	64	Coal, Statistics
38	Salman Khursheed	56	Corporate, Minorities
39	Dinsha Patel	72	MSM Enterprises
40	Krishna Tirath	54	Women & Child Development
	Ministers of state
41	Srikant Jena	58	Chemicals
42	E Ahamed	71	Railways
43	Mullapally Ramachandran	53	Home affairs
44	V Narayanasamy	61	Planning, Parliamentary affairs
45	Jyotiraditya Scindia	38	Commerce and Industry
46	D Purandeswari	50	Commerce and Industry
47	K H Muniyappa	61	Railways
48	Ajay Maken	45	Home Affairs
49	Panabaka Lakshmi	50	Textiles
50	Namo Narain Meena	65	Finance
51	M M Paliam Raju	46	Defence
52	Saugata Roy	62	Urban Development
53	S S Palanimanickam	58	Finance
54	Jitin Prasad	36	Petroleum and natural Gas
55	A Sai Prathap	64	Steel
56	Gurudas kamat	55	Communications and IT
57	Harish Rawat	62	Labour and Employment
58	K V Thomas	63	Agri, ConsAffairs, food and PD
59	Mahadev Khandela	65	Road transport and highways
60	Dinesh Trivedi	59	Health and family welfare
61	Sisir Adhikari	66	Rural Development
62	Sultan Ahmed	56	Tourism
63	Mukul Roy	55	Shipping
64	Mohan Jatua	71	I&B
65	D Napoleon	46	Social Justice & Empowerment
66	S Jagathrakhshakan	61	I&B
67	S Gandhiselvan	46	Health and Family Welfare
68	Preneet Kaur	64	External Affairs
69	Tusharbhai Chaudhury	42	Tribal Affairs
70	Sachin Pilot	31	Communications and IT
71	Arun Yadav	35	Youth Affairs and Sports
72	Prateek P Patil	35	Heavy Industries & Public Ent.
73	R P N Singh	39	Road transport and Highways
74	Shashi Tharoor	53	External Affairs
75	Vincent Pala	41	Water Resources
76	Pradeep Jain	49	Rural Development
77	Bharatsinh solanki	55	Power
78	Agatha Sangma	28	Rural Development